From Bario we flew back to Miri and then on to Kota Kinabalu and Tawau, where
a person from a dive safari agency picked us up. After staying a night in Semporna, we boarded
a boat for a three-day journey
to paradise. Our best memories are from the famous Sipadan island. Although a bit
crowded and a visibility that suffered from a recent storm the diving was great, with
lots of fish and green giant turtles.

347. Paradise island
The sea outside Semporna is dotted with tropical islands. We left in the
morning and made our first two dives at the nearby island Palau Mabul. Since
we were not staying overnight, we were not allowed to go ashore.
In the afternoon, we continued to
Roach Reef. It is a man-made island built on a small sandbank. The atmosphere was
friendly and relaxed and it was certainly not crowded here. Since we spent the night there,
we had time for a night dive.
The next day we continued to Palau Sipadan, the most
known island (among divers) in the region. Sipadan lies far out into the sea with a surrounding depth
of 600 metres. Just outside the dive centre is a more or less vertical wall down to
the bottom!

381. Green turtles
The sea around Sipadan was crowded with green turtles. We saw the first one after just a few minutes of
our first dive. Soon, we didn't bother counting them. It was strictly forbidden to
touch the turtles as well as any other fish or corals.
At night, the turtles come up
on the beach to lay eggs. Because of this, it was also forbidden to go outside the hotel
area after 6 pm, except if you were part of a guided tour. We were unlucky; the man
guiding on the tours was going on vacation the same day as we arrived.

396. Butterfly fish
There were also a lot of fish around Sipadan. Some came in large schools like the
butterfly fish or barracudas. Others were lone warriors like the reef sharks. No matter where one turned
it was a colourful display.
Suddenly, all of the smaller fish would swim into the reef for shelter
leaving the space around us totally empty! We couldn't see anything, but something must have scared them.
After a few seconds, they were coming out again, one kind after the other, creating colourful,
layered bands of different species.

404. Inspecting the coral
The corals had seen their best days. If it was because of global warming or the sheer number of
divers (Sipadan can host over 100 divers doing four or five dives every day) was hard to tell.
Probably it was a little of both.
During the night, the reef was entirely different. We were diving
along the wall just outside the dive centre and all corals had put their red tentacles out.
It was a great show, with big parrotfish looming around over and below, and the flashlights from
other divers further away creating a spectacular light.

425. School of barracudas
It was our last dive at Sipadan. My girlfriend and I stayed rather shallow to take some pictures
while the rest of the group went deeper in pursuit of some barracudas. The current was heavy
in some places, but we could handle it by going to another depth, where the current was going the
other way!
At the end of the dive, the divemaster signalled to us. Around a corner, there was
suddenly a large school of barracudas. It was like a wall in front of us, stretching into
to the blue as far as one could see in all directions. Magnificent! It became the subject
of the day among the rest of the divers on the island. It was a rare event that such a large school was spotted.